California · Nonprofit
WE CARE SOLAR
WE CARE SOLAR (California) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $30,030,819 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($15,302,000). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2024
- $13M
- Funders on record
- 77
- Grants received
- $30M
- Net assets
- $17M
What We Care Solar does
Mission
We Care Solar designs and implements solar energy programs to improve healthcare and education.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Healthcare program - We Care Solar designs and deploys solar electric solutions to provide reliable light and power in low resource healthcare settings. Its technology, the We Care Solar suitcase, is a complete solar system powering lights, mobile communication, and medical devices, including a fetal heart monitor, led headlamps, and battery chargers. Robust and easy to use, it enables emergency care where electricity is unreliable, supporting safe deliveries at night, timely referrals, fetal monitoring, and improved health worker safety and morale. We Care Solar trains local partners to implement, install, and maintain systems to ensure their long-term sustainability. Gender-inclusive programming promotes women as solar installers and trainers, opening doors to employment opportunities.
$6,071,477 spent$90,821 earned by the program79% of program spendingEducation - we share solar, the education program of We Care Solar, empowers teachers to help students become global solar solutionaries. Our stem education program equips teachers with professional development, solar-stem training, ready-to-use curricula, and hands-on solar suitcase lab kits. These tools empower educators to inspire middle- and high-school students to tackle real-world problems with solar electricity. Our integrated curriculum blends stem fundamentals, creative problem-solving, and humanitarian service. Through a unique sponsorship model, solar suitcases are donated to off-grid schools in africa, giving students a direct connection to global impact. Since 2013, over 69,000 students learned with wss and we have provided light to 600,000+ students through solar suitcase installations.
$1,255,270 spent$349,439 earned by the program16% of program spendingResearch and development - We Care Solar's technology team incorporates its field research to improve the design and function of the solar suitcase. It strives to create the most robust, reliable, and appropriate compact solar electric system for rural health systems. In addition to product research and design, We Care Solar collects data on solar suitcase usage and impact. It also identifies and tests medical devices that are compatible with our 12v dc solar electric system.
$315,191 spent4% of program spending
The 3 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $7,641,938.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2023 to 2024, from $13M to $17M (+33%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
94% of WE CARE SOLAR’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (7% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 2 of the last 8 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Laura E Stachel
Executive director
Board chair
Maame Afon Yelbert-Sai
Board chair
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 17 funders to 26 funders, grant income rose $541k → $13M.
19 of 77 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 59% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of WE CARE SOLAR’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 77 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
WE CARE SOLAR leans on a few funders — its largest provides 51% of grant income and the top three 70%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
64% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund WE CARE SOLAR.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 27% · 2018 48% · 2019 91% · 2020 30% · 2021 32% · 2022 25% · 2023 75% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
27% of WE CARE SOLAR's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 47% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
59% of WE CARE SOLAR's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $12M that is directly attributable, 61% of it comes from funders outside California, across 21 states.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $18M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
WE CARE SOLAR runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 4,580 health nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 4,580 health nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Organizations like WE CARE SOLAR
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
53%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for WE CARE SOLAR: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds WE CARE SOLAR?
- WE CARE SOLAR (California) receives grants from 77 organizations whose IRS filings report $30,030,819 to it, the largest being Silicon Valley Community Foundation ($15,302,000). 36 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 59% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does WE CARE SOLAR have?
- IRS filings report 77 organizations giving $30,030,819 in grants to WE CARE SOLAR, 36 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of WE CARE SOLAR?
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation is the largest funder on record, with $15,302,000 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like WE CARE SOLAR find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds We Care Solar →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 77 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing